If you’ve been told you have insulin resistance or prediabetes, you’re not alone — and you’re not broken.
These terms sound scary and complicated, but the idea behind them is actually very simple. Once you understand what’s happening in your body, everything else (food choices, habits, next steps) starts to make more sense.
Let’s break it down.
What is Insulin?
Insulin is a hormone made by your pancreas. Its main job is to move glucose from your blood into your cells, where it’s used for energy. Think of insulin as a key, and your cells as locked doors. When insulin works well, it unlocks the doors and lets sugar in. In this way, your blood sugar stays normal, and your cells get the energy they need.
What is Insulin resistance?
Insulin resistance happens when your cells stop responding properly to insulin. This prevent glucose from entering the cells so it accumulates in the blood. To solve this problem, the pancreas produces more insulin than it usually does. This situation, overworks the pancreas because it makes it work more that it normally does. Its not a problem for the body to overwork once or twice but it certainly is when its done constantly.
Over the time, the pancreas wont be able to deal with the constant excess of glucose in the blood and this will lead to hyperglycemia. This can quietly lead to prediabetes and eventually type 2 diabetes if nothing changes.
The following information is very important to understand it properly: Insulin resistance isn’t always a problem — it’s often a normal, temporary adaptation. At different stages of life or under certain conditions like puberty, pregnancy, illness, stress, or even short periods of overfeeding, the body naturally becomes less sensitive to insulin to manage energy and protect tissues from overload. In healthy physiology, this reduced sensitivity is reversible once the stimulus resolves. Insulin resistance becomes harmful only when these signals are constant and the body never gets a chance to return to baseline, turning a short-term adaptation into a chronic metabolic state.
Why does insulin resistance happen?
Insulin resistance doesn’t appear overnight. It develops gradually. This is a good thing because it gives you time to feel something is not right and take the necessary measurements to prevent it from worsening. Common contributors include:
- Frequent intake of refined carbohydrates and sugary foods
- Large portion sizes eaten regularly
- Constant snacking with no breaks
- Lack of movement
- Chronic stress
- Poor sleep
- Genetics (family history matters)
From my experience the Nº1 contributor is DIET. So if you have been diagnosed with prediabetes you must first check if your diet is good healthy diet or not. A quick way to know is to compare the products you intake with their natural form:
For example, think about a donut or a bag of chips — you don’t find these foods growing naturally on trees or in the ground, do you? What you actually find in nature are the basic, whole ingredients they come from: wheat, potatoes, fruits, vegetables nuts and so on. These original forms are what your body is designed to use for energy and nutrients.
The key takeaway is that the majority of the calories we consume should come from these natural, minimally processed foods. The more a food has been processed — with added sugar, refined flour, unhealthy fats, and artificial ingredients — the further it moves away from its natural form and the less beneficial it becomes for your health. In other words, processed foods are often “empty” in nutrients and can contribute to insulin resistance and other metabolic issues, while whole foods provide fiber, vitamins, and minerals that support balanced blood sugar and overall wellbeing.
Also, genetics are often misunderstood when it comes to conditions like diabetes and obesity. Many people believe that if these diseases are common in their family, then developing them is inevitable. While genetics do play a role, their influence is usually much smaller than people think. Certain genes may make someone more susceptible to developing a condition, but they rarely determine the outcome on their own.
In many cases, what appears to be a “hereditary disease” is actually the result of lifestyle patterns being passed down from one generation to the next. Eating habits, food choices, portion sizes, physical activity levels, and even attitudes toward health are often shared within families. Over time, these shared behaviors can increase the risk of developing conditions like insulin resistance, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. This means that genetics may load the gun, but lifestyle pulls the trigger. And importantly, lifestyle is something that can be changed.
What does insulin resistance feel like?
As I said above “it develops gradually” so many people don’t feel anything at first — which is why it’s often missed. But common signs include:
- Constant hunger, especially soon after eating
- Cravings for sweets or carbs
- Energy crashes
- Difficulty losing weight
- Brain fog
- Belly fat
- Blood sugar that’s “borderline” or slowly rising
Most people only understand whats going on after a routine blood work. The fact is, and I don’t mean to scare you, that as long as you don’t put an end to the insulin resistance these symptoms will keep coming back again and again.
How Insulin Resistance leads to Prediabetes
Technically, persistent high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) doesn’t appear out of nowhere — it is usually the result of insulin resistance. When cells stop responding properly to insulin, glucose stays in the bloodstream longer than it should. At first, the pancreas compensates by producing more insulin, so blood sugar might still look “normal.”
Over time, if insulin resistance continues and the pancreas can’t keep up, blood sugar gradually rises. This sustained elevation is what we identify as prediabetes — higher than normal, but not yet high enough to be classified as type 2 diabetes.
If the underlying causes (like poor diet, sedentary habits, chronic stress) are not addressed, prediabetes can progress to type 2 diabetes. So in a simplified chain:
| Insulin resistance → prolonged elevated blood sugar → prediabetes → type 2 diabetes |
The important point is that early intervention can slow, stop, or even reverse this progression. Prediabetes is not inevitable — it’s a warning sign and a opportunity that your body gives you to make lifestyle changes, which are highly effective at this stage.